A senior UN humanitarian official on Wednesday urged the Israeli government to lift restrictions on the free movement of people and goods in the Gaza Strip.

"The cumulative impact of Israel's restrictions, some of which have been in place for more than a decade, has devastated the livelihoods of families in Gaza," said James Rawley, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, after learning first-hand the impact of the restrictions on Palestinian livelihoods as he led a visit of humanitarian agencies to the region.

"These restrictions affect the poorest the most; they impede development of a sustainable economy and increase dependency on aid," Rawley said in a news release.

The visit to Gaza comes as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released a new update in which it pointed out that the long-standing restrictions on the movement of people and goods to, from and within Gaza have continued to undermine the living conditions of 1.7 million people.

Recent assessments have shown that 57 percent of people in Gaza do not have money to buy sufficient food and 80 percent of families receive some form of international aid.

"Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have the capacity to develop their communities and to build a sustainable local economy," said Rawley, who is also UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. "Only the full lifting of these long-term restrictions will enable them to do so."

In 2005, Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip. A year later, Islamic Hamas movement, which does not recognize Israel, won parliamentary elections and kidnapped an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, after which Israel imposed economic restrictions on Gaza.